Comic's party wins Italy mayoral races, eyes national power
Source: Associated Press
Comic's party wins Italy mayoral races, eyes national power
Frances D'emilio, Associated Press
Updated 10:41 am, Monday, June 20, 2016
ROME (AP) An anti-establishment party founded by a comic has triumphed in Italian mayoral runoff elections, trouncing Premier Matteo Renzi's candidates in Rome and another key city and turning its sights Monday toward its next goal national power.
The 5-Star Movement candidate in Rome, Virginia Raggi, a lawyer with a three-year stint as a city councilwoman, took 67.2 percent of the vote in a two-person runoff Sunday, becoming the corruption-stained capital city's first female mayor and, at 37, also its youngest.
Raggi promised to work to bring "legality and transparency" to Rome's City Hall, where prosecutors probing widespread corruption have found many municipal contracts were awarded without taking bids to political cronies and even a Mafia-like clique.
Another 5-Star candidate, Chiara Appendino, also a woman and even younger at 32, scored in Turin what could be the bigger embarrassment for Renzi, who also serves as Democratic Party leader. With 54.6 percent of the vote, Appendino defeated Mayor Piero Fassino, a veteran Democrat.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Comic-s-party-wins-Italy-mayoral-races-eyes-8312645.php